A jogger takes advantage of San Mateo City College track and its almost perfect weather and view of the city as he runs laps.

A jogger takes advantage of San Mateo City College track and its almost perfect weather and view of the city as he runs laps.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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Bruce Butler walks home next to the Cal Train Station in San Mateo, Butler has seen a lot of changes in his 25 years as a resident of San Mateo.

Bruce Butler walks home next to the Cal Train Station in San Mateo, Butler has seen a lot of changes in his 25 years as a resident of San Mateo.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

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The corners of B. street and 4th is now the home for Century Theatres 12-screen complex finished in 2003, and situated near the train station and across the street from the historic old firehouse that's now the home of Bacio Cafe where Linda Smith and Meyo N. enjoy lunch. less

The corners of B. street and 4th is now the home for Century Theatres 12-screen complex finished in 2003, and situated near the train station and across the street from the historic old firehouse that's now the ... more

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 4

San Mateo's revitalized downtown is thriving

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San Mateo is perhaps the most modern of any city in San Mateo County - a far cry from its days as an Ohlone Indian settlement and Spanish rancho with a mission church. But San Mateo manages to keep tabs on its history by weaving elements of its past into its present and future.

At a time when other municipalities are trying to invent a sense of character and identity to counteract suburban sprawl, San Mateo - with the largest downtown in the county - has long had a sense of place and community. It may not look the same as when Nicolas de Peyster founded a stagecoach shop in an old mission outpost in 1849 and created the first business in a budding town (as well as the main road through it), but the philosophy is the same: reuse and renew.

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"San Mateo is about downtown - it is the theme of our city," said former City Councilman Jerry Hill, now a San Mateo County supervisor. "It's about evolution."

The opening of a railroad station in 1863 led to the growth of the downtown business district. The 37-minute ride from San Francisco attracted wealthy city residents, who built summer homes in Burlingame and Hillsborough, and San Mateo became populated by people who worked on the estates. Three big fires in the late 1800s caused rebuilding of parts of downtown. At the turn of the century, a planned neighborhood called San Mateo Park - featuring curving streets built into the rolling hills and English Tudors, Queen Anne Victorians and Mission Revival homes - was created by architect George Howard Jr. and Golden Gate Park designer John McLaren.

After World War II, more neighborhoods were built by the Bohannon family of developers, creators of the Hillsdale Shopping Center. Bay Meadows Race Course was built on the site of an old airstrip in 1934, a decade after the first county fair was held. The population swelled to just over 92,000, where it has held steady since the mid-1990s.

But with all the growth spreading away from downtown, the city center wasn't what it once was. It wasn't moribund, but it wasn't thriving, either. Pro-growth factions and those who preferred residential development were pitted against one another over the construction of tall office towers that threatened the small-town character. Measure H in 1991 restricted density and downtown height limits.

"People asked me when I was campaigning for City Council in the 1990s, 'What are you going to do about downtown?' " Hill said.

Good bones

The downtown, encompassing more than a dozen square blocks, had potential and good historic bones. Its 1935 post office is a red tile-roofed building on the National Register of Historic Places, and the firehouse was built in 1931 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Some buildings added since were designed with a nod to that past, like the Walgreens at the corner of Third and Ellsworth avenues, which features a Spanish tile roof.

But there was no gourmet grocery, no upscale restaurants, or concerts in the historic Central Park, a city landmark nestled on a woodsy plot along Fifth Avenue and El Camino Real, or movie theaters.

What a difference a decade or so makes.

Since 1993, several projects have added luster to the downtown:

-- The train station was renovated in 1993 and moved from a high-rise parking garage between Second and Third avenues to B Street and First Avenue, closer to its historic original (and more accessible) location, with a 245-space garage.

-- More than $100 million in public and private funds has been invested in several hundred units of housing in clusters around Central Park and along Third and Fourth avenues, major thoroughfares in and out of the city, according to city officials.

-- A 42,000-square-foot Draeger's grocery store (and Viognier restaurant), the city's first foodie haven, was built in 1997.

-- A 12-screen Century Theatres complex opened in 2003 near the train station.

-- A new, $65 million, 90,000-square-foot library at Third Avenue and Dartmouth, featuring the latest in technology and a biotechnology learning center, opened in 2006.

New residents and new forms of entertainment also helped to boost an appetite for dozens of new restaurants - there are more than 128 in a three-block radius around B Street today. Restaurant traffic, said Laura Snideman, economic development manager for San Mateo, increased more than 400 percent in the first three months after the movie theaters opened.

"The truth is that we just used to go to Burlingame," said longtime resident Lynn Bruno, a mother of two teens. "Downtown San Mateo was pretty dead. Burlingame was the place with all the restaurants and people walking around at night, and if you wanted to go to the movies it was pretty much the multiplex by the freeway in Redwood City or the Hyatt in Burlingame. There was no sense of community at either of those places; just big parking lots with ticket booths. But whenever I go to the movies or take my kids to the movies, there's a lot of life in that plaza ... and they see people they know and I see people I know."

The culture meter

Downtown Palo Alto, in Santa Clara County, is often considered the premier dining destination outside San Francisco and the place for people-watching, Silicon Valley-style. San Mateo, though, is catching up on the culture meter. There are nearly 1,000 businesses and services from medical practices to accounting services to shoe repair, dry cleaners and day spas in downtown San Mateo. A bit more middle-class, perhaps, than Burlingame's Burlingame Avenue, which is anchored by chain stores and tony clothing stores like Morning Glory and Susan, but no less useful.

With the opening in 1989 of Ristorante Capellini, the first San Francisco-caliber restaurant to take a chance in San Mateo, came a wave of new experiments - some successful, some not. Still going strong are 231 Ellsworth and Viognier. Barley & Hops, a brewpub, fell by the wayside.

With the city's population largely white, followed in large percentages by Asian and Latino residents, many ethnic restaurants have opened downtown, with Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Peruvian and upscale Filipino fare offered.

Steven Spieller, co-owner of B Street and Vine, a wine bar with a patio lodged in a 100-year-old building that was the city's first library, opened the spot 18 months ago because of the redevelopment push, proximity to the movie theaters, and - as a former restaurant manager - he wanted to run his own place.

B Street and Vine features Italian and Spanish tapas, and wines from California, France, Israel, Argentina and Germany.

"I've always enjoyed cooking," Spieller said on a recent bustling Thursday night, his voice muffled by a jazz combo and the din of visitors who walked in after watching a salsa band in the city's weekly summer concerts in Central Park. "I learned a lot about cooking and baking from my grandmother, mother and dad, who were all great cooks. We use my mom's recipes for bread pudding and cheesecake in the restaurant."

Elsewhere, one phase of a large mixed-use housing, retail and office complex on the site of Bay Meadows' practice track, not far from the Caltrain tracks, has sprung up at Hillsdale Boulevard and Highway 101. Although controversial, it won the approval of the City Council and is an example of reusing old lands for new purposes. The track hosted its last race Aug. 17, with demolition to begin Sept. 1 to allow more development.

"The strength of San Mateo, the special characteristic of it, is its people," said Mayor Carole Groom. "It's a collaborative city and an involved city, whether those involved are in neighborhood associations or the business community. There may be different ways of thinking on how to get someplace, but most people's goal is to continue to make it a very livable city, and a very good city to own a business and to work."

SAN MATEO

Incorporated: 1894

Median income: $76,704

Median home price: $750,000

Median age: 37.5, compared with 33.3 nationally

Square miles: 16, 3.7 of which are under water

Elevation: 28 feet

Population: 93,482 in 37,338 households

Population density: 7,569.5 people per square mile

The young and old: 16 percent of the population is over 64 and 19 percent is under 18

Notable (former) residents: Football quarterback Tom Brady, talk show host Merv Griffin. Actress Alicia Silverstone attended San Mateo High School while living in Hillsborough.

Climate: Mild Mediterranean weather, similar to that of San Francisco and central Chile